Day 17: Creative Challenge

Stephen Bennett has been mixing up his creative output over the past week or so. He's been a garage hobbit today, transforming some common garden MDF into a single layer bookshelf to sit on top of a balustrade in the home of a friend of a friend. Today he cut out the components and screwed it all together. He's filled the screw holes to make a perfect flat finish. And tomorrow he'll be sanding it smooth and painting it white to match the existing decor. Not a bad day's work by any means.

Steve's balustrade bookshelves

Opera singer and strange bedfellow, Kanen Breen, bought some size 11 ladies shoes at Target yesterday for the princely sum of $10. When he got home and tried them on, he felt like he was auditioning for a pro-am production of the Wizard of Oz in the role of the tin man. Another long lunch break later, and the shoes are no less flamboyant, but slightly less 60's space age. They're cheap, they're cheery, and he's threatening to abandon them when he leaves Brisvegas to return to southern climes. But for now, at least, his parade of apparently bewildering glamour continues unabated, and thank goodness for that. These shoes have really brightened my day. I think they're just spiffing and I have to confess, I'd wear them myself if they were a few sizes smaller.

Kanen's Brisvegas glamour shoes

I've had a productive, creative day with a mix of tasks accomplished. I revised a chapter of the crime fiction novel I'm working on. And then I made a pair of earrings so I could do something creative with my hands. I put an antique patina on some beautiful rose findings I bought last summer, and set 10mm freshwater pearls in sterling silver underneath. These earrings have more than a hint of vintage romance about them, and that's gotten me thinking about Colin Firth. Well, Mr Darcy more accurately. But there's only ever been one Mr Darcy for me. "In vain I have struggled. It will not do. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you." Surely he must have figured out by now that he was addressing the wrong Ms Bennett?!